Methods of Producing Freeze-Dried Acellular Vascular, Peripheral Nerve and Generic Tissue Grafts for the Treatment of Combat Casualties
Abstract
The program consists of three projects: vascular grafts, skin micrografting and dura replacement. The vascular graft project aims to generate an off-the-shelf transplantable vascular graft for combat casualty care. We have made significant progress toward achieving a final protocol for processing vascular grafts and recent grafts implanted in vivo in feasibility phase studies have consistently been patent at 2 weeks. We anticipate beginning the long-term studies of 3 and 6 month duration early in year 2. The skin micrografting project aims to develop protocols for enhancing closure of full-thickness skin wounds by combining micrografting techniques with AlloDerm, a transplantable human dermis. Our studies have identified Vaseline gauze as the preferable wound dressing. Human skin proved to be unsatisfactory as a donor source for microskin pieces in our nude rat model. We are now therefore using autologous skin, which appears satisfactory as evidenced by epithelial migration from the microskin pieces. Upon verifying that we have achieved optimal grafting conditions, we will next determine the maximum expansion ratio which allows complete epithelialization of the wound. The goal of the dura replacement project is to determine whether a generic acellular matrix can function as a connective tissue scaffold for host cell repopulation and site-specific tissue regeneration. We have demonstrated in this project that XenoDerm not only serves very well as a graft, but also shows preliminary evidence that it is being remodeled into dura by the host cells which have repopulated it.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADB239008
Entities
People
- Lawrence E. Boerboom